*Prepping*
By: Alasken
28 February 2010

I was talking with my mom on the phone about "stuff" and we started on current events and my asking her about her preps and plans. She told me she was OK and had some food and water put aside, her propane was full so she could handle things for a month or so without any help. If it went longer than that my brother would be around.

We got to talking about what could happen and she asked if I remembered the Cuban crisis. I said, "I think I was only 5 or 6, did we do anything special?"

This is her story, the short version, there may be some germs of info in it, at least there was for me.

My Granddad, a wheat farmer and mechanic, had a summer cabin in Red River, New Mexico that the family used as a get away. This is in the mountains of northern New Mexico, an old mining town. No running water, propane heat, set at the end of the road bordering forest service land.

It seems that my Granddad felt that things were getting crazy so it was time for a family vacation. He gathered his immediate family, a couple of hundred lbs of wheat, corn, staples, and canned foods, and as mom put it, more camping stuff than I had ever seen.

He made it seem like a vacation and adventure for the kids. He listened to the radio and had appropriated an old mine behind the cabin for the fallout shelter in the event of the worst case. He didn't trust the community shelters. As we know now, no one hit the button and things settled down.

Here is what I bring away. I remember this 3 week vacation as one of the best times of my life. We played and hiked, and even got to explore an old cave and put some lamps in there so we could see. Granny even tied to sweep it up some. We all thought that was funny. Everyone talked and we played cards every night. I remember no stress although it had to be thick. They must of shielded us kids from that.

In the run up to an event the way we approach it will determine how we survive it, mentally as well as physically. We were in no way truly prepared but my Granddad took what action he could and made the best of it. We would have been better off than many and not as well as some. As he always told me, "We do what we can do and move on. It does no good to fret about what we can't do."

This is my FNV although it is old and some is second hand.
Alasken

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